Hello, let me start by saying I'm a working pro for 40+ years. When the pressure was on, in the "film days" we would all shoot Polaroid until we were absolutely certain of our lighting and exposure. And only then would we risk our reputation ( and the huge expense of color sheet film ).Then came the digital age, and we are all squinting at these tiny images at the back of our cameras. When the light is bright we are doing a dance, moving the camera around to avoid seeing reflections on the screen. And when we're outdoors in bright sunlight, we have to purchase huge magnifying hoods. I can even envision a progression all the way to the dark cloths of the view camera days!

It's crazy! I think progress is going backwards.

on Nikons lower dSLRs D700 or lower ... they mostly offered autogain (auto-ev0) preview only for focus/framing, never full image exposure preview (still had to read light meter scale)

What I wouldn't give for a nice big 4x5 inch Polaroid preview!

full dynamic range image exposure simulation with realtime LIVE FULL IMAGE SENSOR PREVIEW particularly most powerful in Full M/M ISO mode

MISSING: multiple-exposure/overlay LIVE preview (a variation/extension of hdr live preview) between a new live scene and existing image(exposures before)

But, then I begin to think of the new mirrorless cameras with EVF's. They too have the now traditional LCD screen on the back of the camera. But also since the image in the viewfinder is electronically generated, shouldn't it be possible to chimp your images ( to perfect your lighting and exposure ) through the camera's EVF?

no need to chimp at all (shoot, review, adjust for errors, reshooting, repeat, etc = totally avoided to begin with)

just choose your "pre-outcome live preview image to taste" THEN shoot it as desired 'first-time-right', and vary it creatively for other outcomes, if you want, as you please.

Is anyone doing this? Is it working? Can you judge lighting ratios and modeling in your lighting effectively?

Canon has led in this area even more than Sony for a long time

funny you should ask this because Nikon later offered this in their D3/D3x/D3s ... D4 ... and partially in your D800 ... (why not use it, or try it on a Canon ?)

What camera are you using? I would like to hear your ideas. I'm presently shooting with Nikon D700 and D800 cameras, and I'm fed up with trying to focus my aging eyes on a miserable piece of LCD real estate in bright light. I'm not about to splurge my money on a pricey Zacuto finder. My cameras are already huge enough!!!

exposure determination for a given lit scenario only needs to be done once with ExpSimLV given you can preview it ALL (whole/most of) the scene via EVF or swivel/tilt) LCD, then knowing exposure is what you want, you can spend all your 'shooting' time with your OVF exactly what sportshooters are doing at sports venues)

I need your collective experience and wisdom on this. Any and all ideas are welcome! Thank you very much.---Jeff Barlowe